Woodstone Prairie

I’ve been trying to think of a good title for this post, something that kind of sums up the day, but I’m coming up empty. So this will have to do…

We spent another day in the ER today, and I’m counting my blessing this evening that my youngest “chick” is home, safe and sound, and sleeping her own bed.

PLEASE, if your children ride horses, NEVER let them ride without helmets!!! R’s helmet probably saved her life today…

We’d gone to look at a horse we were thinking about getting for R. It’s a horse that’s been used for therapeutic riding for almost a year now at the stable where R and M have ridden off and on for several years. (The same place we got Grant.) We were looking at a 7 yo quarterhorse gelding, a younger and bigger horse than Grant was.

R was taking him for a test ride and doing beautifully… The instructor stayed very close for awhile, but Willy (the horse) was listening to R, following her commands, and R was having a great time. She was relaxed, confident… they were riding in the indoor arena, no ice or snow, no wind or other “spooky” events… everything looked perfect. I had reminded R to put a helmet on almost as an afterthought. Habit more than anything else.

R had been transitioning Willy from a walk to a trot (beautifully I might add) when suddenly, in the middle of a trot, he went down on his front legs, brought his rear up into the air, kicked with his back legs and bucked her off! She came down on the top of her head, then onto her face. I ran to her, and she couldn’t get up… She wasn’t unconscious, but completely dazed… She didn’t know where she was, that she’d been riding, or recognize her riding instructor. Her nose was bleeding, and she had road rash up one side of her face.

She could walk a little (with help) so I quickly loaded her into the car and rushed to the ER. (Yeah, maybe I should have called 911, I don’t know… I wasn’t thinking very clearly myself, and we were WAY out in the country.) It was a horrible drive back to town… R was either crying and confused about what had happened, or dozing off. (Which I knew I couldn’t let her do…) Luckily the roads were clear and I got to the hospital pretty quickly.

They did several CT scans (head, face and neck) and an x-ray (torso) at the hospital and everything checked out ok. It took several hours for her to start thinking clearly though, and her memory of this morning is still very spotty. 

They sent her home this afternoon, and although she’s pretty beat-up right now she should heal just fine.

At this point our plans for replacing Grant are on indefinite hold. Even if R were ready to get right back on a horse, I’m not sure I could let her… Maybe later but not right now.

Here’s a picture of my poor beat-up baby…

Please keep her in your prayers, she’s already feeling very sore and it’s only likely to get worse over the next day or so….